Important Questions About Industry-funded Research

Last March, Dr. Marion Nestle began sharing the results of industry-sponsored studies, five at a time, on her Food Politics blog.

Today, she shares the latest compilation, which brings the total to 95 industry-funded studies with conclusions that favor the sponsor and 9 that do not.

Today’s post, however, also adds thought-provoking questions that relate to issues of conflicts of interest in research.

For example:

“Does providing study products introduce conflicts of interest?”

“Does [this study] mean that the investigators decided what they wanted to study and then asked Dairy Management Inc for funding, knowing that Dairy Management would have congruent interests? Does something like this increase confidence in the results?”

“Does recruiting a third party to audit data increase confidence in the credibility of this study? Isn’t it more relevant to ask about how the research question is framed?”

These are important questions that must be kept in mind, especially since industry-funded studies are often used as reference for industry-sponsored continuing education opportunities.

Subscribe to receive our quarterly newsletter and other breaking news!

Recent Posts

Why not? "Panera Bread has unveiled a new 20-ounce plastic cup that lists the amount of sugar and calories in fountain drinks."
Even if this decision was partially driven by a marketing strategy to promote Panera's Read More

"If you are working to improve public health and the environment in Africa, you need to know what your opponents are up to," University of Melbourne public health professor Rob Moodie writes in The Conversation.
We Read More